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Gen* Robt £• Lee 



COMMEMORATE ADDRESS before the 
R. E. Lee Chapter Daughters of Gonfederacy, 
Aberdeen, Mississippi, on the Anniversary of the 
Great Gommander's Birth, January 19> 1908 




A-^.L 



ADDRESS 



Daughters of the Confederacy, Comrades, Ladies and 
Gentlemen: — 

This is the day set apart by the Daughters of the Con- 
federacy, as well as by Legislative enactment of the States 
of the South, as a Memorial Day — the natal day of the 
great military Chieftain who among all others was most 
conspicuous for his military achievements in that unfor- 
tunate struggle of our Southland, in which all was lost 
save honor. On this day, there are gathered together in 
all parts of this great American Union, the faithful fol- 
lowers of the Lost Cause, who stand with bowed heads in 
prayer, or raise their voices in songs of patriotic memo- 
ries, or in spoken words of eulogy, for our dead Chieftain. 
To us this is not a day of sorrow ; we meet, not to grieve, 
but to glorify, — we meet for new inspiration from the 
deeds that have made the name of Robert E. Lee one of 
undying fame. 

An eminent Southern writer has said : "A land without 
memories is a land without liberties," and this is true; 
for no country has established a proper national existence 
except through long gradations of light and darkness, of 
debasement and exaltation, through which its people have 
struggled, and in which the events of the past, illuminate 
the progress of the future, pictured by traditions that keep 
alive the longings of national honor, and serve as an incen- 
tive to patriotism. 

It has ever been, "since man was made to mourn," that 
the high roads of human progress have been macadamized 
with human bones, and sprinkled with human blood. 






Truths which come in pain and sorrow to individuals, 
come in war and revolutions to nations. ISTo great thought 
has been given to the world, but that great brows have 
ached for it. All great truths have been attested bj the 
sufferings of martyrs; and great principles for the better- 
ment of the world, have been, purchased with the lives of 
men. Through the groans of martyrs, the blood of heroes, 
and the labors of weary years, the enlightening principles 
that were to bless humanity were "wrought out of wrath 
by the swords of mankind." The epochs of these great 
events live for the world in history, and for a people alive 
with national honor, both in history, and traditions, by a 
commemoration of its important periods by such festivals 
as constitute a great patriotic sacrament. 

In these evolutions of nations, there have been individ- 
uals whose higher qualifications, greater individuality, and 
greater powers, physical and mental, have fated them to 
be the important factors in working out the destiny of 
their country, insomuch that the threads of their lives are 
so interwoven with the great epochs in which they took 
their places, that the traditions of the one go hand-in-hand 
with those of the other, and give them a special commemo- 
ration which in one age amounted to deification, and in 
another, to veneration; for in many particulars, the reli- 
gion of one age becomes the poetry of the next. 

Looking backward along the dim vistas of the .past, we 
find that from the earliest ages of the world, by rites 
either heathen or Christian, there has been some method 
of apotheosis to mortals who have accomplished their work 
in this world in a pre-eminent manner. Valor has given 
demigods to mythology, and piety, canonization in church 
traditions. 

These were but the prototypes of that distinct veneration 
which more enlightened and less superstitious ages give 
to those whose actions have placed them above the endeav- 
ors of more ordinary men. This veneration may be 
ephemeral or perpetual. The mere glamour of military 



achievement may dazzle for a while; the adroitness of 
brilliant statesmanship, or the charm of fervid oratory, 
may create a passing popular idol ; the fanaticism of sec- 
tarian zeal may for a time adorn the mortal head with 
an evanescent, saintly halo; many reputations glitter for 
a time with the superficial gilding with which contempora- 
neous partisanship may adorn them ; but the relentless pen 
of the historian of an age following that in which fervor 
and excitement warped the judgment of admirers and 
paralyzed true opinion, overthrows many an idol and levels 
many a spurious demigod to the common plane of faulty 
and erring humanity. A Marlborough, despite the fame 
that the most brilliant victories that military genius could 
achieve had been awarded him, and the efforts of the 
greatest masters of English versification to render him 
immortal, is found at last to be venal, avaricious and 
treacherous; a Cromwell, dissembling and hypocritical; 
a Knox, more bigot than saint; a ISTapoleon, selfish, false 
and unprincipled; and even the pious Milton, somewhat 
tainted with graft. In fact, we may walk through the 
vast halls of the Pantheon of history and find among 
all the heroic figures that adorn it, but few that can com- 
mand an undivided and complete veneration, if we make 
true greatness the object of it. 

There are a few illustrious men whose deeds and con- 
duct, simply told, show a greatness that goes sounding 
down through the ages without the adornment of the adula- 
tion of venal bards or partizan panegyrists, and whom the 
bare facts of history, whether they have failed or whether 
they have triumphed, will immortalize, despite the assaults 
of time-serving detraction, however adroit or able may 
be the speciousness by which it is aided. Such a one is 
he whose birthday we now commemorate. 

"But I sing of one whose glory shone 
Like a meteor bright and grand ; 
Who gave his name to the tramp of fame 
And his sword to a generous land." 



There are mighty ones who have worn the victor's 
crown, whose success, stained with earthly taints, has left 
the robe of truth whitest where it was least touched by it ; 
but he was one who in the grandeur of a pure heroic life, — 
"where all was done that man could do, and all was done 
in vain" — gave to God his frustrate endeavor, untar- 
nished, and, bowing to the will of the Maker, left to the 
world, unchallenged, its share in man's crime; for never 
a juster cause fell and never a nobler champion upheld it. 

While we of the South grant that the sword, the last 
stern arbiter of earthly difference, has settled the dispute, 
we know that those who bore the "Southern Cross" during 
those days of woe and blood under the leadership of that 
consummate Captain, resolute, devoted, and daring, no 
matter which way rolled the tide of war to which they op- 
posed their gallant breasts ; by their deeds have attested the 
truth of their hearts, and there is no question with us of 
the right of their cause. There was no question of it with 
Lee, although there was no one v\^ho more deeply deplored 
the factional differences that led to an open rupture be- 
tween the North and the South. 

He had given close thought and study to the grave ques- 
tion, whether the compact between the States reserved to 
any one of them the right to withdraw from the federation 
of States if it saw proper to do so, and in his concluding 
analysis of the facts that confronted him, he was con- 
vinced that the United States, in coercing Virginia, called 
upon him to wage an unjust war upon his State, his 
countrymen, and kinsmen. Lee was a soldier, — not a 
politician, and had nothing to do with the acrimonious 
discussions that culminated in war. When his State was 
in conflict with the Federal Government, he saw which 
way his duty led, and without hesitation he cast his lot 
with her. 

Some partizan writers have sneered at his turning his 
sword upon the government that gave him his military 
education. When King Edward of England reproved a 



gallant Knight-Templar, whom he had captured, fighting 
in the Scottish ranks, for using his sword, consecrated to 
the defense of Christendom, against a Christian nation, 
the Knight's reply was: "I was a Scotchman .before I was 
a Templar." And so with Lee — he was a Virginian before 
he was a West Pointer. His loyalty to his sacred trust, 
his valor and skill in executing it, his moderation in vic- 
tory, his constancy and fortitude in defeat, his grand equi- 
poise of character, place him far beyond the voice of puny 
detraction, which has not now even an echo, while friend 
and foe, the old world and the new, wreathe his memory 
with garlands of laurel, and freely render their tribute to 
the purest hero of the war. 

Descended from a long line of illustrious ancestors 
famous in the history of the old world and the new; titled 
ones who rode at the bridle hand of Plantagenet, princes 
as crusaders in Palestine, and valiant men-at-arms at Cres- 
sy and Poitiers, always bearing their escutcheon unsullied 
throughout the trying times that made the great epochs of 
English history; and of the untitled but famous gentry 
who are noted in the history of the colonies and the events 
of the Revolution; he excels them all as the Knight of 
ISTature's own creation for whom the accolade of chivalry, 
the pride and pomp of caste, and station, can add nothing 
to the glory of one who had acquired through habitual self- 
restraint, the mastery of all the defects of an earthly na- 
ture, and has maintained a fixed and unswerving alle- 
giance to duty for duty's sake. 

With an eye fixed on duty alone, and a heart in which 
no sordid influences could find lodgment, he did not need 
and he did not seek other counsel than the dictates of his 
o^vn conscience, unwarped by the passions and prejudices 
that usually beset the career of most men, and thus, in a 
certain sense, he walked alone, the most striking, impres- 
sive type of exalted humanity; his stately, commanding 
figure, his perfect expression of manly beauty and mod- 
esty, and the grace, ease, and courtesy of a born patrician, 



giving him a physique in complete harmony with his lofty 
attributes. 

So when the shrill, clanging curtain of war was raised, 
and the loud orchestra of artillery thundered forth its 
deadly notes, and the shuddering nations looked upon the 
grandest drama that had been enacted in modern days, no 
actor trod the boards of that gloomy stage who enchained 
the attention more completely than Lee. ^o one of that 
brilliant galaxy of military chieftains — 

"Inspired repulsed battalions to engage, 
Or taught the doubtful battle where to wage." 

From the beginning to the end, he was actuated by no 
personal consideration. There were others who hesitated 
where to place their fortunes, and were swayed by the 
promises of important positions. The greatest of Federal 
Admirals and the soldier who has been called "The Rock 
of Chickamauga," despite their high renown, are not above 
suspicion, but the taunting query — "Under which King, 
Bezonian, speak or die V could not be put to Lee. With 
flattering offers from the Federal side, and with no cer- 
tainty of the place that would be given him by the Con- 
federacy, careless of all such considerations, he promptly 
followed where duty and honor beckoned to him. 

I may not rehearse, on this occasion, the various mili- 
tary achievements that have placed him beside the great- 
est masters of the art of war. The best military critics 
of the old world have given them an elaborate review, with 
a delineation more powerful than I can attempt, and the 
songs of the poet and the imagery of romance have por- 
trayed them in language more glowing than I am capable 
of. Aft^r the bloody and fruitless battle of Seven Pines, 
when Lee was placed in charge of the army of Virginia, 
the world soon saw that a master hand wielded the trun- 
cheon of command that could only be matched by that 
of a Marlborough, a Napoleon or a Wellington. 

In the three years in which he fought his great battles. 



with tremendous odds against him, and foiled the best 
strategist that the Union army could boast, his wonderful 
forecast that anticipated the movements of the enemy, 
and the mathematical' precision with which he met them, 
challenged the admiration of the world, and made him the 
hero so beloved of victory, that she left him only when 
his ranks were reduced to a skirmish line, his last gun had 
thundered its defiance, and his worn and thinned legions, 
fronting to the very last a tremendously outnumbered foe, 
"sank outwearied rather than o'ercome." The shattered 
blade, the dismounted gun and the hecatombs of slaugh- 
tered foes taught blatant demigogues that Southern chiv- 
alry was not a myth; and, side by side, in the annals of 
history with the white plume of !N'avarre, the crests of 
Edward and Bayard, we have our Lee ; and in the devoted 
ones who followed him, a band as effulgent in glory as the 
Knight's of Arthur's Eound Table who fell at Lyonness 
around their King, or the paladins of Charlemagne who 
sank before the overwhelming myriads of Moorish lances 
in the fatal Pass of Roncesvalles. 

During the trying period in which he led the hosts of 
the Confederacy, there was much of jealousy, much of 
envy, much of heart burning, much of shifting the blame 
for failure or disaster; but Lee passed unscathed through 
it all. Unswerving from the high duties that devolved 
upon him, and faithful to the honest, unbiased service 
which he conceived his country demanded, prejudice was 
a stranger to him, and men of worth, whether friendly or 
unfriendly to him, received all proper commendation. 

He measured all by their usefulness to the country. He 
shrank from no blame, freely shared the honors of suc- 
cess with those who deserved them, and as freely assumed 
his full share of the responsibility for defeat or disaster. 
There were gallant and eflScient officers who, whatever 
might have been their abilities, have displayed characteris- 
tics that have held them up to censure. There has been 
none of this for Lee. 



Of all the valiant Knights of the "Round Table," tradi- 
tion tells us that Sir Galahad, alone, possessed suflScient 
purity of heart to successfully accomplish the quest of 
the "Holy Grail;" so, for the whiteness of his soul, Lee 
is the one hero of the war who has accomplished his mis- 
sion with unalloyed and unstinted commendation from all 
sources. 

In the thirteen decades of American independence, there 
has been a long list of heroes, statesmen, jurists, and sol- 
diers, from ISTorth, South, East and West, who have given 
a lustre to our country's glory, and have gained much of 
the world's admiration ; but the highest meed of the world's 
veneration belongs to two of them, both Southern men — 
George Washington and Robert E. Lee, who equalled him 
in patriotism and in other high characteristics, and who 
perhaps, excelled him in military ability. In fact, there 
was much resemblance between them. Both were orderly, 
systematic, and regular; both exhibited the rarest virtues 
of self-restraint and self-command, and both were of such 
exalted character that men held them in such reverence 
that we hear but little of the commonplace things of life 
about them ; and particularly of Lee, we hear but few 
things he did or said, outside of his public life. There 
was a natural, reticent dignity about him that precluded 
much overflow of feeling, although he was of an affection- 
ate and social nature, and of devout and zealous religious 
convictions and unassuming piety. 

'No man had such a place as Lee held in the hearts 
of the soldiers, from the highest officer to the humblest 
private in the ranks. It was not the wild, fantastic devo- 
tion of Frenchmen to ISTapoleon, set ablaze by the meteor of 
conquest. It was the love and faith of patriots for the 
serene, calm, resourceful hero, who, above all sordid feel- 
ings, served his country, not his ambition; who planned 
for both their glory and safety ; who was of them and with 
them; sharing alike their victories, disasters, and priva- 
tions ; and when the cause had fallen, was still of them and 



with them until his dying day, and could say, as the stain- 
less Percy said, when with his dying breath, as he lay 
upon the field of Hedgely Moor, he expressed his loyalty 
to the Red Rose of Lancaster — "I have kept well the bird 
in my bosom." Refusing offers of lucrative positions in 
important enterprises to which the mere association of his 
name was all-important, and the gifts of an honored home 
and an easy living at the hands of wealthy and titled ad- 
mirers in England — wrapping himself in the mantle of 
his spotless integrity, and retiring into virtuous poverty, 
he chose the quiet retreat of Lexington and the duty of 
guiding in the fields of learning the youths whose sires he 
had led in the rugged highways of war. 

Within the w^alls of the stately cathedral of Canterbury, 
there is a tomb that contains the ashes of the noblest and 
the purest of the Princes of the Plantagenet Line. Upon 
it rests his recumbent efiigy in the panoply of a Knight 
and Prince. There is shown his shield and surcoat, and 
his "helm that never bowed to aught but time." Wherever 
the English language is spoken, his virtue, his valor, and 
his loftiness of character shine brightly through the gloom 
of centuries, and his name is the synonym of heroism and 
chivalry. The mightiest Prince of his day, although 
sprung from a line of glorious, royal ancestors, he did not 
disdain to bear the humble motto, "Ich dein" — "I serve." 

Within the college chapel at Lexington, there is a tomb, 
strikingly suggestive of Medieval solemnity, upon which 
reposes the effigy of an uncrowned Prince of the new world 
who always bore upon his heart the precept of the Divine 
Master — "He that is greatest among you shall be your ser- 
vant;" and who sought by true service, unalloyed by love 
of self, to do honestly, fearlessly, thoroughly, and con- 
scientiously the work entrusted to him and ultimately to 
find that 

"The toppling crags of duty scaled 
Are close upon the shining Table-Lands 
To which our God, Himself, is moon and sun," 
and an abiding shrine in the hearts of his countrymen. 



In celebrating this anniversary, we erect a grander 
monument than any lofty abbey that hides within its 
stately and solemn gloom the ashes of the royal and mighty 
ones who have passed from the scenes of earthly pride and 
pomp. We grope not in the realms of mortality, where 
the flickering torch of tradition reveals with dim light the 
ashes of glory adorned by the cold, carved garlands of the 
passionless artisan, but we perpetuate a living, glowing 
memory, as year by year we assemble and recall the life 
and deeds of the greatest leader of the Southern hosts, 
who gave to a fallen cause so much of the glory and honor 
we did not lose, in losing everything else. ISTor could 
there be a more befitting assembly for this celebration than 
"The Daughters of the Confederacy." For in those days 
of sacrifice, the mingled libation on the altars of our coun- 
try, was the blood of brave men and the tears of true 
women; and wherever a gallant, manly form was shorn of 
life, a gentle woman's heart was bereft of happiness. 
Where valor, endurance, and intrepidity strode along the 
perilous edge of battle, constancy, devotion, and womanly 
fortitude abode at home, rendering in their sphere a serv- 
ice commensurate with deeds of heroes. 

In all the varying scenes of Civil War, whether as a 
Ministering Spirit to the sick and wounded, that crowded 
the military hospitals, or as a medium through which our 
soldiery could be supplied with clothing, or cheered in the 
performance of duty, our dear women were angels of love 
and mercy. 

"Upon her country's altar, 
Laying all she loved and prized. 
Ah ! Who shall tell the pain, 
With which she viewed that country's bloody fall 
And realized her sacrifice was vain." 

When at last our hopes were gone, "When darkness was 
the darkest," and when a ruined people sat down upon the 
wreck of their hopes, the women of our Southland, hold- 

10 



ing in reverence the valor and heroism of our soldiery, 
conceived the idea of erecting monuments to our dead; 
and to-day in many of our cities and villages there stands 
a marble shaft to recount the bravery of our Southern 
heroes, and as an enduring monument to the love and 
affection of the Daughters of the Confederacy — 

"Yon marble minstrel's voiceless stone. 

In deathless song shall tell 
When many a vanquished age has flown, 

The story, how ye fell; 
]Sror wreck, nor change, nor winter's blight, 

]^or time's remorseless doom. 
Shall dim one ray of glory's light. 

That gilds yon deathless tomb." 

vv w w w 7P 

"On Fame's eternal Camping Ground 
Their silent tents are spread 
And Glory guards with solemn round 
The bivouac of the dead." 

Her work has not ceased with the memories of the 
heroic dead. Upon the living heroes, all the glory of that 
immortal struggle is being perpetuated in the distribution 
of the Cross of Honor, a decoration more honorable than 
the "Star or Garter, when worthily worn." These are 
the jewels the Daughters of the Confederacy bestow on 
annual occasions like this, upon worthy survivors to whom 
it is given strictly in charge to keep in remembrance of 
the glory and renown of Southern chivalry in that im- 
mortal struggle. 

Material monuments crumble and decay, and time era- 
ses from earth, the last resting places of both the lofty and 
the lowly dead; but the shrines of memory, through suc- 
ceeding ages, preserves the names and deeds of those who 
have deserved the reverence of posterity. And this, the 
natal day of Robert E. Lee, — as great a leader as ever bore 

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the baton of command, as true and grand a man as was 
ever created in the likeness of his Maker — will be cele- 
brated ; and his deeds will be remembered while there are, 
as there ever will be, men to whom have descended the 
valor and patriotism of a soldier race, or women who in- 
herit the virtues of the Daughters of the Confederacy. 



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LIBRARY OF CONGRESS 



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